City 4 Blackburn 1

MANCHESTER City climbed into the Premier League top four after cruising to victory against Blackburn. Carlos Tevez's hat-trick and a cracking Micah Richards effort extended Roberto Mancini's 100 per cent record as Blues boss.

Tevez, who was awarded the Barclays Player of the Month award for December before kick-off, lived up to his billing by taking his tally up to 15 goals for the season.

But although Tevez grabbed a treble, the goal of the night was scored by Richards.

The defender charged upfield from just outside his own box, beating four players, before putting Benjani in on goal.

The Zimbabwean's shot hit the post, but Richards had continued his run and flew in to knock home the rebound.

Morten Gamst Pedersen pulled a goal back for Blacburn - the first City have conceded under Mancini - before Tevez curled home City's fourth.

New signing Patrick Vieira could not shake off a calf strain in time to play, but he was given a rousing reception by the City fans when he loped onto the field before kick off to be introduced to the faithful.

Catcalls

He was also given a fistful of catcalls and abuse from the small huddle of Rovers fans – he has not lost the power to annoy and alienate which most great footballers have.

But Mancini did spring a surprise by selecting Benjani in the starting eleven, and it did not take long for the manager's audacity to pay off.

The Italian notion that he is a blessed manager was given further credence after just seven minutes, as Martin Petrov dropped a poor corner down the throat of goalkeeper Paul Robinson.

The former England number one inexplicably palmed the ball weakly to the grateful Benjani.

The big man miscued his shot, but the ball sped unerringly at Tevez, who applied an old Argentine tango move, knocking the ball in with a Latin thrust of his right hip.

The ugliness of the goal was lost in the joy of its celebration, and was accentuated by the power and beauty of the second.

Richards was a player marked “expendable” by Mark Hughes, and he splits City fans down the middle. The precocious powerhouse who burst onto the scene for club and country at just 17 has matured into an enigma.

At times he looks like a defender of sublime strength and athleticism, at others someone who lacks the concentration and learning capacity to ever become a truly top player.

Five minutes before his goal, Mancini had been teetering on the edge of his technical area, urging the big Yorkshireman to keep the ball on the ground after a couple of speculative punts had conceded possession.

Richards took him at his word. Picking the ball up just yards outside his own box, there were few options for him.

So he just kept running. And running. And running... with Blackburn defenders caught out as much by the unlikelihood of his surge as by the pace and power of it.

The pass to Benjani was also first-rate, and when the striker’s shot twanged off a post and bounced across goal, Richards had continued his run to apply an assured finish at the far post.

Tevez and Richards had taken the glory, but there was no denying that Benjani was proving to be a dratted nuisance to Rovers.

And he had a more deliberate hand in City’s third goal, four minutes into the second half.

Tevez work

Tevez, naturally, provided the hard work, hustling and bustling in the centre circle before lofting a reverse pass down the channel for Benjani to chase.

He pressured Gael Givet into a slip and then turned past him. His cross dropped perfectly for Tevez to measure a glorious shot beyond the grasping Robinson.

It should have been a hat-trick as fellow Argentine Pablo Zabaleta picked him out with a gorgeous cross, only for Tevez’s diving header to zip past the post.

As it was, City relaxed their grip at 3-0.

Ironically it was Vincent Kompany, who had been a tower of accomplished defending, who took a sloppy touch to hand the ball to Pedersen, who expertly arced it into the far corner.

For a while that goal gave Rovers the heart they had lacked throughout, and the ghosts of the give-aways against Hull, Fulham and Burnley could be seen hovering menacingly over Eastlands.

There was still time for this match to become a test of whether Mancini truly has shot his side through with more steel.

Six of the last nine Manchester meetings of these two teams have ended in draws, but City closed this one out, and Tevez sealed it with another moment of sheer class in the last minute of normal time.

Subsitute Robinho found him on the edge of the box, and he cleverly curled his shot around a defender, using him to obscure Robinson’s sight.

Mancini has set his team the challenge of reaching the top four this season. They are in it – now comes the hard part, staying there. What is your verdict on the action? Have your say.